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Equinox (episode)
Voyager finds another Starfleet ship which is also stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Summary A Federation starship named ''Equinox'' is under heavy attack. The bridge is in shambles, with fallen structures, exposed and broken conduits, and flickering consoles. The shields of the vessel are failing. Out of options, the captain orders the shields taken off-line, and the emitters recharged. The crew arms themselves, to defend against aliens which materialize on the now-vulnerable vessel. A crewmember perishes upon contact with the strange lifeform. Later, Captain Janeway, Chakotay and Seven receive a distress call from Equinox - the ship is in the Delta Quadrant, not far from ''Voyager''. Janeway orders an intercept course and red alert. She informs Seven that the Equinox, a ''Nova''-class science vessel, was commanded by Rudolph Ransom, someone she'd always wanted to meet. Seven comments she also wishes to meet the crew of another human ship. The entire senior staff assemble on the bridge to see the Equinox. Upon making contact, Ransom pleads the ship to extend their shields around his, matching the emitter frequency. In the few seconds it takes Tuvok to alter the frequency, interspacial fissures open on multiple decks on Voyager. Fortunately, they close as soon as the shields power up. Not hearing anything from Ransom, Janeway orders the Equinox secured. An away team finds what remains of the Equinox crew, and beams them to the care of the Doctor. Tom Paris, finding a body, is confused to find it has been exposed to a thermolitic reaction, dessicating every cell within. B'Elanna Torres is equally confused by the redesigned dilithium matrix and warp core modifications. Janeway meets Ransom on the Equinox bridge, and is able to find out that the aliens have been attacking his ship for weeks. They're unable to communicate with them, and thus unable to stop the attacks. Ransom is disappointed to learn that the advanced Voyager is not a ship sent from the Alpha Quadrant to find him and his crew, but shared his fate of having been pulled to this side of the galaxy by the Caretaker. He eventually agrees to leave his bridge to receive treatment. An unknown time later, Captain Ransom performs a memorial service in the Voyager mess hall for his fallen crewmembers, and hopes that together, the two vessels can get home safely. Janeway orders B'Elanna and Harry Kim to work on resurrecting the Equinox's primary systems, while Tuvok and Seven of Nine work with Max Burke (the first officer) on a defense against these aliens. Before starting on this, Max speaks with B'Elanna - the two went out back at Starfleet Academy. After they leave, Harry teases Tom about his jealousy. One of the Equinox crewmembers, Marla Gilmore, speaks to Chakotay. She's been acting as the main engineer, but requests if she can join a repair crew aboard Voyager - she has too many bad memories from her vessel at the moment. Chakotay accepts. In astrometrics, it is realised that the aliens can only survive in our realm for several seconds, like fish out of water. Tuvok and Janeway hypothesise that if they can show the aliens that they can hold them here for longer, they may stop the attacks on their own accord. Burke admits that they created a multiphasic stasis container designed to hold a single alien to see what they were up against. If the multiphasic shielding could be extended to a shipwide based system, it could be the defence they need. Unfortunately, the stasis chamber is in the Equinox research lab, which was flooded with radiation in the attacks. However, he agrees to try and download the original schematics. While aboard the Equinox, Janeway and Ransom compare command styles - Ransom's informal and relaxed style with his smaller crew, and Janeway's by-the-book manner. Ransom talks how he lost half his original crew of 78 through a battle with the Krowtonan Guard, a week after arriving in the Delta Quadrant. He has never engaged the Borg, and places much of the success of his ship to make it the same distance as Voyager, despite being less advanced and slower, to a wormhole and enhancements made to his warp engines. He asks Janeway, captain to captain, on how often she'd broken the Prime Directive; she admits to bending it, in a crunch, to which Ramsom comments that he's "walked the line" as well. Back on board the Voyager afterwards, Ransom finds Max Burke in the mess hall. Rudolph orders him not to say anything - they aren't staying around Voyager for long, as Janeway and her crew: "would never understand." As long as he stays silent, and the research lab stays off-limits, they'll be fine. Soon afterwards, while Noah Lessing and Seven of Nine work together in astrometrics, the now-familiar sound of the aliens and the interspacial fissures appears. Lateral shields are offline, and it takes Tuvok a few seconds to reroute power to the shield systems. He calmly replies that the aliens have apparently focused on a single shield vector. It collapsed before the auxillary emitters could respond. He estimates that they have two days before the shields will fail entirely, and another defense will be necessary. In a meeting with the senior staff of both vessels, Tuvok reveals that defense - by modifying the Voyager field generator, he and Seven will create an auto-initiating security grid, which would surround the alien which infiltrated either vessel. The modifications will take fourteen hours. However, concerns exist on whether or not the Voyager shields could last fourteen hours. Chakotay recommends evacuating Equinox entirely, and concentrating on preserving Voyager. Janeway quotes Starfleet regulations which say that in a combat scenario the commander of the vessel with tactical superiority has overall command to end Ransom's protests. Ransom goes to the Equinox to collect his things. On the Equinox, Ransom and Burke reveal their plan to steal Voyager's field generator and go home to Marla and Noah. Citing that Voyager has a full crew and weapons, his crew relunctantly agree to assist. While making the modifications, Tuvok and Seven note that the level of radiation has remained unchanged. Realizing that it should have disapated, they quickly discover that three EPS conduits are deliberately contaminating the lab. Upon discovering this, Janeway sends the Doctor, immune to the radiation, to spy inside the lab. He is able to determine that the aliens are made up of an unusual strcuture of nucleogenic energy, to such an extent, that if they were used as a fuel, the energy released would greatly enhance the power of a warp engine - specifically, that of Equinox. Janeway furiously confronts Ransom, accusing him of killing the aliens to get the crew home faster. He recalls the Ankari introduced his people to the lifeforms. After gaining the summoning beacon they used to summon them, they analyzed the creature in the research lab. The creature died, not being able to handle living in our realm. By using some of the creatures as fuel, they travelled 10,000 light-years in less than two weeks. Ransom tries to use Starfleet regulations which authorize a captain to preserve a command by any justifiable means as a rationale for this, but Janeway rejects this, and confines the Equinox crew to quarters. Back on the bridge, Janeway orders Seven to beam over and take the warp core modifications off-line, and for the Doctor to go as well, to find any way of communicating with the species. The Doctor doesn't fare well with his mission, and soon realises that the Equinox EMH is needed to access the files. Activating said EMH, who is the same version as him, the Doctor is appalled to discover his counterpart designed the experiments to torture the aliens. Saying his ethical subroutines had been deleted, the Equinox EMH deactivates the Doctor and takes the mobile emitter, trying to find out how it works. Soon after, the Equinox EMH is on Voyager. As the shields fail, he gains access to the Equinox crew, telling the guards he needs to treat the crew for a virus. Inside his medical kit, however, are phasers. At the same time, Tuvok and Torres work out their new security grid has been sabotaged. The Equinox crew wander the corridors of Voyager, but Harry Kim detects their escape and seals the deck. The Equinox EMH had anticipated this and has rerouted transporter control, using the Equinox systems, to a panel in a nearby junction. As security forces approach, the Equinox EMH deactivates himself. The Equinox crew transport back to their ship. Gilmore stuns Seven with her phaser and works to bring the warp core online while Burke transports the field generator. Janeway tries to reason with Ransom, but he ignores her and takes the Equinox to its maximum speed of Warp 8. Meanwhile, the Voyager shields finally collapse, and the aliens attack all decks. In the ensuing battle creature flies towards Kathryn Janeway, and she turns to react a second too late... Background Information This episode is the season finale of the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager. Links and References Guest Stars *John Savage as Rudolph Ransom *Titus Welliver as Max Burke *Olivia Birkelund as Marla Gilmore *Rick Worthy as Noah Lessing *Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman *Thomas Velgrey as a crewmember *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References David Amantes; astrometrics; Badlands; John Bowler; Dorothy Chang; The Doctor; Emergency Medical Hologram; kemocite; neural interface; [[USS Nova|USS Nova]]; [[Nova class]]; Ponea; Edward Regis; synaptic stimulator; William Yates. * List of Borg species designations Chronology 2370 2375 Category:VOY episodes